City Beat 54 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine clockwise from top left: corey templeton; eaghan maurice (2) a cultural mainstay–a veteran on a street humming with change. Gradually, Then Suddenly Incrementally, a trickle of new faces be- gan setting up shop along the seam that joins the industrial East Bayside to residen- tial Munjoy Hill. Tu Casa got us hooked on Salvadorean fare in 2002. Coffee By Design started roasting here in 2005, followed by the arrival of Maine Mead Works in 2010. Around this time, local developer Jed Harris was commuting daily between Fal- mouth and the Old Port. “I’d look at the area as I drove through. I began to think of Wash- ington Avenue as the industrial corridor for the East End.” A destination of its own. Talk about thinking big. When Har- ris bought the 130,000 square-foot Nissen Building for $7.2 million in late 2013, va- cancy was at 70 percent. Securing a lease with Newcastle-based brewery Oxbow was his first catch. “I was invested in Oxbow’s vision,” he says. The hip tap-room, with beer barrels and graffiti lining dark walls, tipped the avenue’s influence onto the pub- lic radar. By 2015, the foodie scene had set its sights firmly beyond the Old Port. Ital- ian-American eatery Roustabout opened at 59 Washington Avenue. Next door, Maine & Loire wine shop brought a cosmopolitan feel to the street, strengthened by the ad- dition of a storefront bistro named Drift- ers Wife. Across the street, Terlingua BBQ joined the fray. Suddenly, East Enders didn’t have to trek downtown to enjoy that spoiled-for-choice sensation familiar in the Old Port. S urrounding the Nissen build- ing, the past year has ushered in new arrivals. Among them, urbane, Japanese- inspired Izakaya Minato, colorful Flying Fox Juicery, and the petite, timber-clad A&C Grocery (above). A&C owner Joe Fourni- er cut his teeth at Rosemont Markets and as co-founder of the Farm Stand in SoPo. When his time came to go it alone, Wash- ington Avenue was a natural choice for the Munjoy Hill native, who sells a small but choice selection of groceries, deli products, and booze in his tiny, sunlit shop. “Everyone talks about the revitaliza- tion of this street, but that’s not right,” says Fournier. “This is the Golden Age of Wash- ington Avenue.” “Everyone talks about the revitalization of this street, but that’s not right. This is the Golden Age of the Washington Avenue.”